Cove Stars

The span of Cove Arch in NE Arizona is 180 ft. by 70 ft. and was situated perfectly for shooting the eclipse through the portal, as we were about 1/4 mile away on a ridge. Joining me for the event were Doug Koepsel and Grant Collier. I don't know about those folks, but my efforts to photograph the eclipse didn't pan out at all.
Still, we had a great time around the campfire swapping lies and getting set up for an evening of night photography. Calm, dead quiet and zero light pollution made for a successful evening under the stars.

Canon 5DII w/'plastic, fantastic' 50mm f1.8 lens
20 min. exp. (10 frames x 2 min.) @ f2
ISO 800
Cheap ($35) intervalometer allowed me to snooze while the exposures were taken.

I actually had a combined one hour exposure, but chose the shorter version for aesthetic reasons.
Any suggestions greatly appreciated!

Cool shot. Here is to that plastic fantastic!

Looks like you did ok even without the eclipse.

Pretty damn nice consolation prize for the eclipse, John! This is a pretty perfect shot.

What intervalometer is that, and is there a Nikon-compatable version?

John, very attractive image. Did you use any special software to combine those images?

Thanks, folks.
You can find your future intervalometer here, Jackson.
When (if) you get one, shoot me an email and I'll give you a couple of tips that I couldn't quite suss out from the poorly written manual.

Ken,
I did use Floris van Breugel's free Star Trail Stacking PS Script in Photoshop which automated the process and removed minute gaps that are inherent with combining multiple images.

Suddenly I feel very small. I wish I could have been there, just for the stories.

A wonderful effort here, John. The sky looks so immense and the light on the rocks is just right for the scene. This will need to be printed very LARGE!

That's a pretty sweet image John. It's compositionally strong and full of rich night color. However, what captured me first was your comments about hanging out with friends around the fire shootin the S**t. Boy that sounds like a really nice night.

Very cool image John! Compisition is great and the star trails put lots of interest. Thanks for the info on the equipment.

Awesome, just awesome John. Never seen so many star trails in an image. Love the blue sky background as well.

Terrific image, John. I wish I could've been there, too.

I've got one of those intervalometers, so please send me those tips you mentioned.

This turned out well. I like the aqua color of the sky and shorter, fading trails. One consideration may be to darken the brighter rock area to the left of the arch.

Sweet!

Cool shot

Nice shot, John! I've yet to process my star trail shot, but I hope it turns out this well! If not, I'm sure you won't mind if I send the files to you to process for me. Thanks again for the "tour."

Nice consolation prize, John! I like the fact you can still see color/detail in the arch and rocks. It was nice to finally meet you in person this weekend.

That's awesome! Wasn't this also called Royal Arch? I had a shot of it used in a Sierra Club calendar several years ago.

Thanks for the kind words, folks.
Todd,
Cove Arch is indeed also known as Royal Arch. Why it has two names is beyond my limited capability to understand.

That's a very good long exposure! I'm impressed.

Beautiful star trails and comp! My star shots the night of the eclipse turned out better than my actual eclipse shots as well; although I didn't intend to get amazing close up eclipse shots because NASA will trump whatever I can generate.